Sitcoms on the whole don't do much for me but I've been watching Miranda since the second show (it finished last night) despite it annoying me at least as much as I enjoy it.
For a kick off, it very much breaks the third wall. Miranda the character is always turning to the camera to make a gesture or comment to the audience. The cast hams it up outrageously as if they were playing to a theatre gallery, and as the credits play the cast all parade in front of the camera acknowledging the audience.
The situation is this: Miranda is 30, six feet tall, acts outrageously while nevertheless suffering from low esteem, is in love with a handsome chef at a small bistro, is a virgin, owns a knick-knack shop run by her dizzy blonde best friend, has an annoying mother. If this sounds awful, it is awful.
But somehow it works.
And the reason is this: the writer knows how to create a character that you manage to laugh with rather than consider pathetic and the character is played with the great skill by the actor. Their names? Oh yes, the writer is Miranda Hart and the actor is Miranda Hart and she's playing a character called Miranda who could become one of British sitcoms' great sitcom characters.
Basically I just think Miranda Hart is great. She looks like a lump of dough in a dress (a really unkind statement, I know) while managing to be really appealing. She is a writer, a stand-up comic, and actor (appearing in tiny roles or in ensemble pieces on tv for years, more on radio) whose time has finally come and I hope this series is the start of the Miranda Hart invasion.
I love you Miranda Hart.
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